Lyme borreliosis (LB) is a multisystemic disease caused by Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato (sl) complex transmitted to humans by Ixodes ticks. B. burgdorferi sl complex, currently comprising at least 19 genospecies, includes the main pathogenic species responsible for human disease in Europe: B. burgdorferi sensu stricto (ss), B. afzelii, and B. garinii. In this study, for the first time, MALDI...

OBJECTIVE Borrelia burgdorferi infection can affect the CNS and mimic psychiatric disorders. It is not known whether Borrelia burgdorferi contributes to overall psychiatric morbidity. The authors compared the prevalence of antibodies to Borrelia burgdorferi in groups of psychiatric patients and healthy subjects to find out whether there is an association between this infection and psychiatric m...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the precise species of tick vector and the Borrelia spirochete pathogen at the Heilongjiang Province international border with Russia. METHODS In this study, ticks were collected from 12 Heilongjiang border crossings (including grasslands, shrublands, forests, and plantantions) to determine the rate and species type of spirochete-infected ticks and the most prevalent ...

CD4(+) CD25(+) T cells are a population of regulatory T cells responsible for the modulation of the immune response in several autoimmune and infectious disease models. We previously showed that adoptive transfer of enriched CD4(+) CD25(+) T cells also plays a major role in the prevention of arthritis in Borrelia-vaccinated (Borrelia burgdorferi isolate 297) and -challenged (B. bissettii) mice....

Current serologic Lyme disease tests use whole borrelia cells as the source of antigen. These assays are difficult to standardize and to optimize for sensitivity and specificity. To help solve these problems, we constructed a library of recombinant chimeric proteins composed of portions of key antigens of Borrelia burgdorferi. These proteins were then used to develop an enzyme-linked immunosorb...

Lyme borreliosis is the most widespread vector-borne disease in temperate zones of Europe and North America. Although the infection is treatable, the symptoms are often overlooked resulting in infection of the neuronal system. In this work we uncover the underlying molecular mechanism of borrelial translocation across the blood-brain barrier (BBB). We demonstrate that neuroinvasive strain of Bo...

background: ferula persica has been used in traditional medicine for treatment of high blood pressure. in this study acute and chronic effect of aqueous f. persica extract on bp of hypertensive rats and its possible mechanism of action have been investigated. methods: eighty two male wistar rats were divided into 12 experimental groups. hypertension was induced by goldblatt method in the anesth...

Borrelia-specific antibodies are not detectable until several weeks after infection and even if they are present, they are no proof of an active infection. Since the sensitivity of culture and PCR for the diagnosis or exclusion of borreliosis is too low, a method is required that detects an active Borrelia infection as early as possible. For this purpose, a lymphocyte transformation test (LTT) ...

To explore the tick distribution and prevalence of Borrelia in Zhejiang Province, we performed a survey in nine sites. A total of 447 adult ticks of 11 species were captured and the dominant tick species were Haemaphysalis longicornis and Ixodes sinensis and the abundance of tick species in different areas varied significantly. Overall, 4.70% of the ticks were polymerase chain reaction (PCR) po...

AIMS 16S rDNA sequences of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato were aligned with the 16S rDNA sequences of Borrelia hermsii, Borrelia turicatae, and Borrelia lonestari in order to identify primers that might be used to more specifically identify agents of human Lyme disease in ticks in human skin samples. METHODS AND RESULTS Standard polymerase chain reaction (PCR), using an oligonucleotide seque...